Favorite Flower
by Taka Llusion
Summary: A mysterious artifact has taken an unusual hold on Yugi, and done some very strange things to him! How will Yami cope, and how can the effects be reversed? YxY, shounen-ai fluff.
1. Cheesy Prologue

"Yugi, what's your favorite flower?"

The smaller figure paused to think. "I don't know, I like a lot of them. Cherry blossoms are always nice, I suppose."

"But what's your favorite, the one you wish could cover all the parks and fields in the country, you find it so enchanting?"

Yugi laughed at that. "Yami, when did you get so dramatic and sensitive?" Yami only smiled at him playfully. "Well, I guess I really like… the dogwood. Pretty to look at, but hardy too. Though they don't last very long." He sighed and took on a pensive expression. "Yup, dogwoods."

TL: Wow, that came to me very quickly. I'm happy! does the famed happy dance Well, it's 6:15 AM and I haven't slept yet. I'm craaaaazy.

Jou: Why, yes, you are.

TL: I'm just so pleased with how quickly this came together! I thought it would take longer for me to think of everything. Anyway, short anecdote at the end to tell you how I came up with the idea. Rather odd, where my inspiration came from, actually.

Jou: No kidding… sidelong look

TL: Yes indeed, so here's your disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh, or it's characters, or any of that junk. I was not the first person to come up with this pairing (not by a long shot). So don't give me too much credit here, okay? Heh heh, I'm not _that_ ingenious.

Jou: …Baka.

_Favorite Flower_

Yami wasn't liking his present situation very much.

It wasn't so much something wrong with him that was upsetting, but instead the way his hikari was acting. The young teen had been going about the last few days fairly normally, though he seemed to be a bit too possessive about the pendant he had received from his grandfather during the past week. But now he was acting very strangely.

The pendant was a small gift from one of Sugoroku's old archaeologist friends, and it had been handed off to Yugi when the boy took a liking to it. It was very simple in appearance; a small rectangle in bronze with plain black stones set into the middle and four corners, with a loop at one end for a string to go through. Why Yugi liked it so much, Yami couldn't understand. In his opinion it made a very tacky necklace, and wasn't useful for much of anything else. Apparently it had been unearthed in southern Egypt a month earlier, though the design did not even remotely hint at Egyptian origin, along with a small tablet adorned with a crude picture of a man and a dog on it. The significance of the picture was hardly looked into, as it was too vague and small. So the pendant which was of low value when they couldn't even determine its dates and origin, had been given as a small token of friendship.

And now, ever since acquiring it, Yugi refused to let it out of his proximity. During the day he kept it in his pocket, and at night when he slept he would set it carefully on the bedside table next to the alarm clock. He didn't seem to think his behavior was too strange, and brushed off his yami's questions about it, but this only made Yami more suspicious. There was something about that little piece of jewelry that just didn't seem right.

Once Yugi had started the panting phases, Yami was even more positive than before.

It had started four days after the pendant came into the boy's hands. While Yugi was asleep, Yami had been watching him, smiling slightly at his hikari's gentle breaths, when Yugi had begun panting. Loudly. Like a dog. It went on for near an hour, but Yugi denied knowledge of it come morning. The same thing happened the next night, only with a few small yips and twitches added. These odd symptoms had Yami on edge, and Yugi in disbelief.

"How did you possibly come up with that idea, Yami? Me, acting like a dog in my sleep? That's just ridiculous!" Yugi laughed it off. Yami frowned.

He did not trust that tacky little rectangle, that piece of metal that seemingly had no history. He didn't trust it one bit.

Yes, so, the anecdote. Well, I took a two-week intensive Japanese/anime class a while ago, and I used my old school binder, which had an insert in the back covered with YxY fanart. The one boy and youngest in the [four-person] class, 10 years old, name of Chad, was looking at them in slight confusion, though by now he had figured out my obsession. Anyway, he started going on about Yugi's choker, how it looks so weird. "It looks like a dog collar," he said. This was quite funny as both my fellow s-a-lover and I were wearing dog collars that day, I believe. Anyway, he went on to say, about Yugi in respects to Yami, "He looks like his dog, or something." Light bulb! And that is how it was born. The foreshadowing bit came from my desperate search for a title, when I thought of dogwood trees, one of which we have in our backyard. So I looked to see if dogwoods grow in Japan, and they do, and they are quite pretty, with their pink flowers. And, um, I apologize of this chapter was too much author-talk, I'll shut up for the next chappy.

(Oh yes, and in regards to the person who requested a Jou/Seto fic… I ish just to jealous for that, m'dear. I am terribly sorry. cries Jou is mine, min, I tell you! You can't take him away from me, never! Anyway, I'm sure you can find some delightful J/S fics by other authors. nodnod)


	2. Chapter I

TL: looks around Hellooooo…? Where'd everybody go?

Jou: They all left because you took too long to update.

TL: They—They did? Has it been that long? checks updates Holy censored! It's been approximately a gazillion days since the prologue of this! I blame high school. I blame everything on high school, including world hunger, the war with Iraq, and the death of Elvis Presley. I've been crazy-busy. But I finally got a vacation! Whooo—

Jou: You're talking too much. Just write.

TL: Right. Here is the chapter I thought I lost. Enjoy the mind-numbing shortness. uu

(A/N: I've gotten used to using the double-u-ed Yuugi, so I apologize for the inconsistency.)

* * *

"Yuugi? Yuugi! Aibou, where did you go?" Yami glanced around in a circle, thinking quickly. Yuugi had been waiting for Yami to come back to the amusement park square with a map, but now the boy had wandered off to Ra-knows-where. The crowds of noisy people strolling through and past the spot made it even more difficult for Yami to try and find his hikari by normal senses alone. He tapped into the Puzzle link. The "other end" was dead.

Yami cursed. This either meant that Yuugi was hurt, unconscious or dead, or that he wasn't wearing the Puzzle. Yami doubted the second possibility, but feared the first. Surely someone would have noticed if Yuugi had been hurt, so perhaps he had been quietly kidnapped. That made the task of finding him nothing short of impossible.

Yami started by poking around the rest of the park, hoping for some kind of hint. As he was beginning to lose hope, heading towards the park entrance, he overheard a small child arguing with her mother, about something that gave Yami a large jolt of renewed energy.

"But Mommy, I think it's pretty!"

"Well, whatever you think, it's tacky and you don't know where it's been. We should take it to a guard and let them return it to its owner, if that person even wants it."

Yami frowned. His spiritual home was not tacky! He refocused his thoughts. Yes, Puzzle, Yuugi. Now we will find Yuugi.

"Excuse me ma'am, that's my necklace. Thank you, I've been looking all over for it." He took the Puzzle and left behind a dazed mother and sulky little girl.

Now Yami knew why Yuugi hadn't responded. It looked as though he had dropped the Puzzle en route to an unknown location. This eased the pharaoh's worries a little.

Yami once again made his way to the exit, nodding to the security guards and ticket takers. The real challenge had begun. Yami had to find a small teenaged boy in the city of Domino, possibly held captive, possibly not.

First the spirit checked Kame Games, then the high school and museum. With no success and normal hangouts out of the way, it was time to check the back streets.

Wandering along a dank and rather smelly alleyway, Yami was startled by a noise in a doorway. There was a light scratching of claws on concrete and small, plain brown crossbreed puppy sat himself down on Yami's left foot, smiling in a canine manner and wagging his tiny plume of a tail.

Yami sighed. "Hello, little dog. If you would kindly remove yourself from my foot I could continue my search for my aibou." The puppy remained where he sat, still smiling and wagging his tail. "In fact, I would like for that to happen. Soon." Yami stared down the dog, willing it off his foot. The dog didn't move. "Don't make me ki—" he began, bending down, when he noticed the dog's collar. "Is that Yuugi's? There aren't exactly an infinite number out there. Wait, you… You _are_ Yuugi, aren't you?" Yami noted the violet hue of the puppy's eyes, and the familiarity it seemed to feel for him. "So where are your clo—oh. Oh." Yami was bombarded with images of Yuugi, minus any clothing except for a collar. He swallowed. "Now see what you've done?" The dog that was Yuugi stuck his tongue out and began to pant good-naturedly. "Clothes can be replaced. We're going home." With that, Yami picked up Yuugi and tucked him under one arm, turning around and setting a course for home.

* * *

TL: I'm sorry it was short. The next chapter is in the works though. Please forgive me. 


	3. Chapter II

TL: I lost the intro to this chapter too, so I just re-wrote it. I actually like this better.

…

Jou: Aren't you going to explain your long hiatus?

TL: Oh, right. Ahem: Christmas. PS2. New Year's. Coming back to school. Midterms. Flu. In that order. But I now am ready to write and will present you with extra chapters. So rejoice and be glad.

Jou: And she still doesn't own Yugioh, though oh how she would like to.

A bell jangled deep within the Kame game shop. A sullen figure, wrestling with a squirming bundle in his arms, approached the counter. Sugoroku looked up and his jaw immediately dropped.

"Is that—"

"Yes. Sorry, Mutou-san, but it seems that while under my supervision your grandson has turned into a dog." Yuugi wriggled from his yami's arms and leapt onto the counter, sniffing all available surfaces and panting joyfully. "I have a feeling it was that ancient pendant you entrusted him with. Funny, I haven't seen it since I found Yuugi this way."

Sugoroku emitted a forlorn sigh. "I had a feeling something like this would happen. Yuugi does seem to be a target for these things. Well, take him upstairs and I'll find something he can eat."

While Sugoroku bustled around in the kitchen, Yami attempted to recollect Yuugi. The dog, however, remained obstinately free. Yami ended up with his chin on the floor diving after his canine hikari, Yuugi triumphantly strutting towards the stairs of his own free will.

"Was he this defiant when he was human?" Yami wondered quietly to himself, following Yuugi up the stairs.

_So, Yuugi…is a dog. This will cause problems. Problems like absence from school due to the fact that he is not allowed on the premises. Problems like my lack of knowledge of the language of canines._ Yuugi interrupted his dark side's thoughts by licking the pharaoh's hand. "Aibou… Why couldn't you have better taste in accessories?" The dog tucked his head under Yami's fingers. Yami sat on Yuugi's bed, absent-mindedly petting the owner and mulling over possible solutions to the multiple obstacles at hand. Yuugi remained blissfully canine, and therefore innocent—while also managing to make Yami's job of thinking seriously very difficult.

The phone rang somewhere in the house. Yami had to check himself before he told Yuugi to get it (he had long since figured out the modern device and its purpose). Sugoroku retrieved it instead. One could always tell, because he was slightly short of hearing and had a tendency to shout into the receiver. Yami pitied the caller. He began to pity himself as well when Sugoroku hollered, "You want to talk to Yuugi?" Yami shut his eyes and concentrated. If he could hear Yuugi's voice in his memory so clearly, perhaps… "I'll get him. Yami? Miss Mazaki needs to ask Yuugi a question. What do we do?"

"We do just this," Yami muttered under his breath, and cleared his throat. "I'm coming!" he tried, and smiled triumphantly. He could pass for Yuugi! What a feat. He nudged the real Yuugi off his lap—and tried not to think about it too much—and made his way to the kitchen. Sugoroku handed him the phone, reminded him with hand signals which end one talked into, and left the room. Yami positioned the phone. "Uh, moshimoshi?" He grimaced: his throat was already getting sore with the straining falsetto. _Make this quick_, he prayed.

"Hey, Yuugi! It's Anzu." Yami could _hear_ her mad grin. "If you're free this weekend, I thought you might like to go to the water park with me again."

Yami faltered. "Uh…I think…I'm busy…" He smacked himself mentally, because not only was that the worst excuse he had ever heard, he had forgotten to mask his voice.

"Oh. Well, all right, maybe sometime later. Hope your cold goes away. Bye-bye!" There was a click and Yami was released. _Cold? Well, thanks for making up an excuse for me._ Yami breathed deeply, and inwardly throttled himself again. He should have said Yuugi couldn't come to the phone! Why hadn't he thought of that?

He had a feeling it had to do with having in his lap at the time.

Oh dear, this was getting out of hand.

TL: Hee, Yami sounds vaguely like an old English bookseller. CoughAziraphalecough. And I still like my traditional breaks. Read on, my lovelies.


	4. Chapter III

TL: Blargh. This was hard to write, but I wanted to make up for my disappearance, so all I have to say is… YOU'D BETTER ENJOY THIS!!

Jou: Sorry, she's a little cranky now because she's worried she'll miss the Edward Elric Show.

TL: I've got a thing for blondes. I know it's sad. But now—Read on!

Yami rested quietly in the privacy of his Puzzle, mulling again. You could probably pour apple cider from his brain after so much mulling. But still he continued onward. This time he worried not only about Yuugi's social life, but his own. Yuugi was his aibou—he was supposed to be protective of him in return for the occasional use of his body, but these thoughts were unrelated to that matter completely. Also probably illegal.

But he couldn't deny he enjoyed them. They were like…what were they called now…"guilty pleasures". The guilty part was the main issue here. There was no doubt, Yami cared for his innocent little aibou, which was exactly why he had refused to allow the images that appeared in his head.

Yuugi was beautiful in Yami's eyes: his pure body, his small frame, his trusting eyes and his quick smiles. But beyond that was Yuugi's innocence, a factor of Yuugi's personality that was so foreign to Yami as to be fascinating. Yami and his hikari really were two opposite halves to a whole, a light and a dark. And what does the darkness desire but light to give it life?

"Yami. Pharaoh."

"Um, yes?"

Sugoroku stared him down from across the table. "It's been nearly a week. Granted, you have gotten better at imitating Yuugi's voice, but something really needs to be done about this."

"I agree." Yami looked nervously from side to side.

"Thus," he continued, "I think it's time for you to take responsibility for your charge's state and try to find a solution."

Yami swallowed. This sounded like unpleasant work.

"In other words… Go find the pendant!"

"Oh, yes. Right, I'll go get Yuugi and we'll go looking." Sugoroku looked smug as Yami dashed downstairs with an excited dog at his heels. The old man could be quite intimidating when he so desired.

Yami approached the amusement park gates, Yuugi tugging at his leash and falling in circles trying to bite it. One of the two guards looked up with a dull expression and pointed at the tumbling dog. "Sorry, we don't allow dogs in the park," he said automatically and without feeling. Yami continued to walk through the gates, reaching into his pocket for the entrance fee (Sugoroku had lent him the money). "Excuse me, sir, but we can't let you go in," the guard continued, with a bit more urgency. "Excuse me—are you listening—" Yami put the money on the counter and hopped smoothly over the turnstile, fumbling with Yuugi's leash to pull it under, and paying no attention to the protesting guard or stunned gate attendant. He walked away nonchalantly, Yuugi bouncing at his heels.

"That went well, I thought," he remarked idly to his friend. Yuugi panted in reply. "I learned it from some people in the TV. Although they usually had a long black coat on, or one of those horrible guns you modern-day humans like so much." Yuugi continued to pant.

Not exactly to Yami's surprise, Yuugi's helpful nose led them straight to the lost-and-found booth. A request of the attendant produced a large tray of lost jewelry and watches, producing a blinding shimmer in the spring sun. Yami poked through the tray, looking for a hint of tarnished bronze, but to no avail. Discouraged, Yami left the park after being severely upbraided by park security and banned from the property for some long amount of time.

"Thanks for nothing, Yuugi," grumbled Yami, disgruntled by the unpleasant meeting. The dog looked guilty and nuzzled Yami's ankle. He could see the apology in Yuugi's eyes. "Sorry, I'm just disappointed. I shouldn't blame it on y—hold on." He broke off and rose from the couch where he had crashed upon return to Kame. "I'm going to the museum," he announced, and left the shop with a determined expression set across his features.

It was late in the day, but the Egyptian exhibit hadn't quite closed yet. Yami scanned the exhibits, showroom after showroom, but there was no metalwork resembling the dog pendant. Greatly discouraged, Yami decided to look in the gift shop for a bookmark or small trinket to make the trip worthwhile. It was here that he saw the horrid pendant, tied on a different leather thong and under the glass case at the checkout. Yami gaped, groped for his money, and compared. He had a substantial 3000 yen left, but the price tag read four times as much. Sugoroku would gladly lend him more money—gladly meaning not too reluctantly and with only a week of the evil eye, but… Yami groaned. He had a lot more walking to do.

TL: Filler/cliffhanger. No wonder I didn't feel like writing it. Ah well, it's there and it's coherent and it will link the last chapter with the next one. That's all that really matters right now…


	5. Chapter IV

TL: Another writing binge, yeehaw!

Jou: As if you were interested, she just got back from NYC, so she's reeeeeally happy.

TL: Yes, yes I am. My thanks go this time to my mom for spending so much money on my crazy fanaticism, and to Hyde for being both really hot and a good singer. I was listening to his album Roentgen while I wrote this and the next chapter.

Jou: The authoress doesn't own Yugioh, blah blah blah…

TL: And I love ellipseseseses. You know, the little dot-trios. Yes, those. I love them very much indeed. And sorry for any small errors in any of my chapters of either story—I just don't find it worth it to go back and change such a small thing. You're smart people, you know what I meant to say.

‾‾‾

Yami struggled to attach the pendant to Yuugi's collar as the dog kept attempting to escape from his arms and race around the house in joy. Yuugi was very used to always having Yami with him, and when the dark spirit had disappeared… Yuugi had distinctly felt an empty spot in the air next to him.

Finally the pendant was securely fastened to the collar. After some very substantial research, Sugoroku had taken a stab at the antidote. It was painfully simple, actually, which made Yami doubtful, but now was the time to test it out. With the help of a local jeweler, Sugoroku and Yami had put a hole into the opposite corner of the pendant than the loop was on, so it could hang upside down. Yami had rethreaded it and then chased Yuugi for a good half hour before falling on the poor dog. Now it was time to wait and watch.

What happened wasn't exactly what Yami had been expecting. Since Yuugi had begun to turn mentally canine before the physical transformation occurred, Yami assumed his restoration would happen the same way. Also, the initial changes had occurred gradually, and so Yami was prepared to wait for normalcy.

Instead what happened was that the minute Yami turned his head away from the dog, Yuugi fairly instantly regained his human form. Where once a small brown dog had sat, puzzling over the new decoration on his collar, Yuugi was seated on the floor, creamy skin, huge purple eyes, and all, looking fairly shocked, his un-styled, over-dyed hair flopping in his face.

Yami spun around to face his hikari, and immediately wished he hadn't. The sight was blinding for the love struck spirit. Yuugi's pure, alluring skin was completely unclothed, his hair hanging loosely in front of soft, round eyes that asked an unknown question…

Yami bolted from the room, darted down the hall and took the turn into the bathroom much too sharply, stubbing his toe on the doorframe and, more importantly, falling flat on his stomach, halfway inside the room. He groaned, pushing himself up from the cold tiles, when a very heavy, warm, _something_ nearly fell on top of him, wrapping its slender limbs around him and planting kisses on his ears. Yami carefully kept his eyes closed and pushed Yuugi off, nudging the unseen form out of the bathroom with his foot until he could close the door and be alone.

The ancient pharaoh sat on the freezing floor with his back against the tub, feeling sorry for himself and not very kingly at all. It was obvious what had happened: the antidote position of the pendant worked in the opposite _direction_ of its initial effects, and Yuugi was first becoming human in body, and later would come mind. So, for the time being, it seemed as though Yami would have an even bigger nightmare than inu-Yuugi on his hands—his hikari in human form, refusing to wear clothes and insisting upon licking him and sitting on his lap. If Yami had not normally been so calm in the face of adversity, he would be sobbing in despair by this point. He had no idea just how much self-control he possessed, and what little he was aware of slipped away abruptly in the face of those lovely childish eyes. Yami did his best not to think about how his body had reacted to Yuugi's recent tackle, and shuddered.

But, suddenly filled with new determination, Yami rose, splashed a little cold water on his face and arms, and left the sanctuary of the bathroom to see if he could coax Yuugi into at least a bathrobe or a pair of shorts. "Yuugi?" he called into the suddenly foreboding house. There was no answer but the drone of the television set. Had Yami left that on? He couldn't remember. In any case, it was using electricity, so he trotted to the living room to turn it off.

"Oh—Yuugi—" His hikari lay sprawled on the couch with a blanket draped over him (Yami noted with an odd mixture of relief and disappointment), paying a bit of his attention to the TV, and the rest to Yami.

‾‾‾

Ack, sorry about the lame solution to Yuugi's dog problem. But come on, cut me some slack, it's just amateur fanfiction on the net… You'd be allowed to get mad if it were printed, but it isn't! So please forgive me.

A note to Marina-Kashu: I already sort of mentioned it in the chapter, but I am of the opinion that Yuugi's hair isn't _naturally_ colorful and spiky. This is a personal thing, but whatever. So, since the dog form of whoever it is who becomes a dog is more related to his or her "natural" form, Yuugi's just a pretty regular-looking little guy. Except for the eyes of course, those would definitely be a distinguishing feature.


	6. Chapter V

TL: Oh my goodness, I think—this might be the end! It was a fun little story to write. Most of the time it was the story writing itself, it seemed; I had very little bearing over where it went.

Jou: As you can tell, by its rambling nature.

TL: Jou-chan, take off my smartening glasses.

Jou: Damn.

TL: I really hope it's been an enjoyable ride for the rest of you, too. Even if my writing or stories aren't perfect, I hope they are entertaining. Now, since I'm sure you're anxious to continue—do so (it's a longish chapter!)!

"Yami-chan, are you okay? I'm sorry I fell on you that way…" Yuugi looked briefly embarrassed. "I tripped over your, um, well, all of you, really."

"That's all right," Yami murmured distractedly. His mind was working overtime today, and it was grumbling about quitting any time soon. Yuugi's first mental transformation had been quite a gradual process, as he recalled. Now all of a sudden Yuugi was back to normal, albeit very tired-looking. That was understandable; Yuugi had been running around like a mad thing for most of the day. But, more to the point…_how_ did Yuugi recover so quickly?

"Come sit." Yuugi sat up to make room on the couch and patted the space beside him. Yami shook his head slowly. "No, no, I'm all right…"

"That's the second time you've said that, but it doesn't really look like you're all right at all." Yuugi's eyes pooled with worry. "I'm sorry, I've been a real nuisance the past few weeks…"

"Not at all!" Yami blurted out. "It's not that at all, really. It's all my fault, I shouldn't be thinking about these things right now, I'll—"

"What things?" Yuugi cut in with curiosity in his features.

"Nothing, nothing, it's nothing to worry about. I'll get you some clothes, you don't have to get up, here, I'll just—"

"Are you sure it's okay?" Yuugi interrupted again. "I mean, it must have been really hard, making up excuses for school and my friends, and I admit, I wasn't really thinking about any of those things at the time, seeing as I wasn't really thinking about anything rational then, and…"

Yami blinked as Yuugi trailed off, looking near tears. "Really, aibou, it's not a problem. I'll be the first to admit that you were actually rather…cute, as a dog."

"Just as a dog?" Yuugi said without thinking. Yami fumbled for words, but eloquence eluded him at the worst times.

"Well, no," he finally said, lamely. "You're pretty cute all the time. Does that make you feel better?" he tacked on the end, desperately trying to cover up his inadequacy.

Yuugi smiled a little, burrowing under the blanket. Really, such a divine and yet positively adorable being shouldn't be allowed down here with us dirty earth-dwellers, Yami thought to himself. _If only for our sake…_

"Won't you come sit down, though? You've been standing there for a while." Yuugi patted the couch cushion again, gazing at Yami hopefully. This time the spirit couldn't resist, and he sat down gratefully next to his beloved.

There was a long silence, during which Yami listened anxiously to the clock on the wall ticking its slow way around the hours of the day. There were very few left, Yami noticed. It was just an hour before midnight, the eleventh hour…

Perhaps Yuugi noticed it too, and he steeled himself for the answer before asking, timidly…

"Just how do you feel about me, Yami?"

Yami twitched in surprise. It was a delicate question. Yami knew he would tell the truth, but he was looking for the right way to word it so he could deny the real meaning if Yuugi was taken aback. His mind scrambled, crying out in panic and indignity at this impossible workload.

"Because I… I really…"

Finally Yami's brain had it, and it stomped off angrily without another word. He was sure he could hear the door in his skull slamming as it tromped off, leaving him to his unreliable instincts…

"I love you."

A minute passed.

Another was traipsing by as Yami slowly turned his head to look at his hikari, his other half.

Neither was sure who had said the fateful words first, and both were in shock at the other's response. Both were sweating quietly, wondering if maybe they had said it wrong, if there was something they had missed.

A third minute was on its way when Yami and Yuugi reached for each other, Yami anticipating an embrace, Yuugi aiming for a gentle kiss. The two, therefore, met halfway—rather painfully. Yami smacked his forehead into Yuugi's chin, and Yuugi nearly dislocated his elbow when it was caught up by Yami's arm. Quickly sorting themselves out and quietly apologizing, each decided the other's idea was really best, and so they only collided with each other again. Yuugi nearly collapsed in a fit of giggles, and Yami smiled, not because it was so funny how inept they both were, but because all the worries he had previously had, while still plausible, just didn't matter anymore. As long as Yuugi said it was okay, in Yami's mind, it was okay. The satisfied dark pulled Yuugi into a sitting position (the boy had fallen onto the floor in his bouts of laughter and the wave of relief that had hit him), holding his wrists loosely, and pressed his lips to Yuugi's.

The kiss was chaste, but long, and it was Yuugi who finally broke away. "I think," he began slowly, "that you ought to know something. I started thinking like myself again right when you put that pendant around my neck. The tackle, and the kisses… I was feeling a bit like a dog still, but I really meant them."

Yami, his brain remaining determinedly on strike, nodded and took in the words to analyze at a later date. What was left of his mind was drifting blissfully in the little heaven that was the taste of Yuugi's lips, the warm feel of his body, the smile in his eyes, his slow, gentle breaths that just reached Yami's neck and tickled him there. Even if the words of love had been a lie, and they still only meant so little by themselves, that kiss said all Yami ever needed to know: that Yuugi was his, that he was Yuugi's, and that the two would be intertwined as one forever.

Then Yami realized that Yuugi had become disentangled from the blanket when he fell, and once again sat before Yami almost completely sans clothing. Yami also noted that his body reacted about the same way. The one difference was that this time, maybe Yuugi wouldn't mind sharing in those "guilty pleasures".

And no, that dogwood thing didn't have a purpose. It really was a pointless device for coming up with a story title. I'm a baaaaad person. Also a sleep-deprived one, but I'm sure that doesn't bother you nearly as much as it bothers me.

Maybe I'll change the title someday, if I feel like it… watches out for any flying pigs


End file.
